Features Bubbletops. Show Rods. Pics. Facts. More pics.

The Futura was a concept car built by Lincoln in 1955.



Any wonder where the inspiration for these '57 Edsel lenses came from?

 

The Orbitron is a great example of how Ed NEVER used a tape measure on his cars, just created them with mad-artistic abandon. Here are a couple photographic studies of the car. I used Photoshop to make mirror images of top and rear photos. I then converted one of the images to a ghost image and overlaid that onto the full image.

In the top view I aligned the round bubble top hole and front tires perfectly and you cans see the huge side-to side differences.

I did the same for the rear view but this time I aligned the front hood and fenders as best I could which demonstrates the big differences in the rear sides of the car.

Truly an artistic genius, not constrained by norms!

 

Just for the heck of it, here's a rendering I did a while back for the F.A.S of what I thought a cutting edge Cadillac concept might have looked like in the early 60's. I called it the Cadillac "Vista Dome" Years later Cadillac introduced the Allante that looked more like a square box with a rag top and we all know how that went.

 

Mind boggling. Absolutely beautiful, I would have bought one for sure! But that would have required GM to have a vision which never was to happen.

 

Manta Ray

 

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Truly an artistic genius, not constrained by norms![/QUOTE]

Doesn't make me feel too bad about mine now.
Haven't carried out the same analysis, but was extremely hard to maintain symmetry during the plaster/vermiculite building process.

 

Doesn't make me feel too bad about mine now.
Haven't carried out the same analysis, but was extremely hard to maintain symmetry during the plaster/vermiculite building process.
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View attachment 4095091 [/QUOTE]

Hey lurker , way to go
I know Roth would be proud!


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Same as above ^^^

 

1947 “bubble top” manufactured by the Fabriform Corporation of Bayesville, Ohio installed on a Ford convertible.

 

1955 Lincoln Futura concept went on to become the Batmobile by George Barris

 

^Yeah. What a shame.

 

Not really Ford dumped it in their "Junk car pile" after showing it for who knows how long. Barris was there at Ford with the boss and saw it and asked what is that thing? It was pretty beat up by that time so the boss said if you want it haul it away and the rest is history.

 

A little tidbit of info I just stumbled onto.....

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Don Hostetter built this version of "The Roadster", it was an AMBR contender 2018.

 

How the bubbles made ?
Glass or polycarbonate ou lexicon ?

 

rgdavid, willys36 gave a great rundown on this on page 11 (post 324) of this thread.. Check it out!

Dave

 

Thanks Dave, i will look learn and dream,

 

Beatnik Bandit

 

I chatted with Big Daddy Roth at the Milwaukee World of Wheels show about six months before Ed died. He was easy to talk to, and was a true gentleman. I have a number of his signed prints, hanging in my garage. I'll never forget him.

 

I'd love to know what it's like to try and drive a bubble regularly...I've seen the distortion in aircraft canopies that were designed not to have it, so it'd be interesting to see what the more home built/non-corporate one were like.

 

The closest I have ever got finding out was driving a AMC Pacer one time.....and that was weird...if they would of offered it with a moon roof .....oh ya...

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posted by swi66 in the vintage thread

 

I guess this would be a bubble top? Run across it in a hard cover book " Ford at Fifty " An American Story....

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posted by swi66 in the vintage thread